Oakland A’s statement on territorial rights

The A’s remain pretty hacked off at suggestions in a baseball column in the New York Daily News that Major League Baseball will not overturn the Giants’ territorial rights to allow the A’s to move to San Jose. So this morning, they put out a statement about it. For more background on the Giants’ take on the territorial issues, here’s a story I wrote about all their arguments two months ago:

Here it is:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 7, 2012

STATEMENT BY OAKLAND A’S OWNERSHIP

REGARDING A’S AND GIANTS SHARING BAY AREA TERRITORY:

“Recent articles claiming that Major League Baseball has decided that the A’s cannot share the two-team Bay Area market were denied by baseball Commissioner Bud Selig last weekend.

Currently the Giants and A’s share the two-team Bay Area market in terms of television, radio, sponsors and fans. Last year, the Giants opened a specialty store in the middle of the A’s market (Walnut Creek). At the time, Lew Wolff commented that he was ‘fine with the Giants store and wished there was an A’s store in San Francisco.’

Of the four two-team markets in MLB, only the Giants and A’s do not share the exact same geographic boundaries. MLB-recorded minutes clearly indicate that the Giants were granted Santa Clara, subject to relocating to the city of Santa Clara. The granting of Santa Clara to the Giants was by agreement with the A’s late owner Walter Haas, who approved the request without compensation. The Giants were unable to obtain a vote to move and the return of Santa Clara to its original status was not formally accomplished.

We are not seeking a move that seeks to alter or in any manner disturb MLB territorial rights. We simply seek an approval to create a new venue that our organization and MLB fully recognizes is needed to eliminate our dependence on revenue sharing, to offer our fans and players a modern ballpark, to move over 35 miles further away from the Giants’ great venue and to establish an exciting competition between the Giants and A’s.

We are hopeful that the Commissioner, the committee appointed by the Commissioner, and a vote of the MLB ownership, will enable us to join the fine array of modern and fun baseball parks that are now commonplace in Major League Baseball.”

I know the A’s were furious that what read to me like an opinion piece in the NY Daily News was cited as a “report” in many places, and the Commissioner’s office immediately shot the NYDN piece down.

It’s interesting that several days after the fact, and a day after the Oakland City Council announced it will spend some funds on plans for that “Coliseum City” development, the A’s put out this statement. Maybe the A’s are just still angry. Maybe they feel they need to swing momentum back their way – for the past several months, it’s seemed as if more people around baseball were starting to think of San Jose as a legitimate spot for a big-league team, and perhaps there was worry that a long-time baseball columnist such as Bill Madden weighing in against such a move might hurt their chances.

But this is the first time we’ve seen such an open statement from the A’s, spelling out their side in detail. And yet – there is no individual owner name attached. It’s “Oakland A’s ownership.” Is this Lew Wolff? Is it John Fisher? Is it Billy Beane, Mike Crowley, any of the other parthers? Or did they all decide this was the time for such a statement and approve it together?